God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty

 

Documentarian Billy Corben's "God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty" (Hulu) recounts the events that led to Jerry Falwell Jr's ousting as president of Liberty University, the largest Christian institution of higher education in the country.

It also draws clearly the connection between Falwell's escapades with wife Becki and a young Miami Beach pool attendant who became her lover and Falwell's protege and the ascendance of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.

The film --which is maddeningly frustrating to me because of the obviousness of the Falwells' ploys -- prominently features Giancarlo Granda, the handsome "pool boy" who was swept into the Falwells' circle by Becki in 2012, while the couple were vacationing at a Miami resort. Granda and Becki Falwell would quickly become regular lovers, meeting in various locations around the country, with Falwell himself watching the two have sex.

The Falwells would soon be inviting Granda along on business meetings and to family gatherings, describing the young man, who was the same age as the Falwell's children, as someone Jerry Falwell was helping professionally. But the actual reason, Granda says, was to keep the young man close and controlled. This continued for several years.

It would all eventually blow up as Granda grew more and more uneasy as he watched Falwell's performances as the leader of evangelical Christians who had been activated politically by Falwell's father decades before. Granda tells of being troubled by Falwell's hypocrisy and how he, Granda, began to distance himself from the couple -- not altogether successfully.

It wasn't until the media started exploring possible impropriety with the Falwells that Jerry Falwell admitted that his wife had indeed had an affair with the "pool boy." Granda publicly retaliated after he was described by some as having targeted Falwell because of his position as a powerful evangelical leader. Telling his story wreaked havoc on the Falwells and their empire. But it also led to other reports of "unholy acts" at Liberty University.

The film also features comments from Granda's sister who was a close observer of the events in real time, investigative journalists and religion scholars add important layers of context to the now-familiar story.

To me, the film's greater value is as a reminder of the costs of blind faith on individuals and society and as a warning about the threat of all forms of radicalism on democracy.